US Treasury

Treasury secretary detailed plan to eliminate coin in 2015 memo

(Newser) -
Now might not be the best time to invest in zinc. The US could be following in Canada's footsteps —and those of a host of other countries, per Quartz —in ridding itself of the pricey penny, according to a March 2015 memo sent to President Obama. In...
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Treasury Secretary says he'll be 'very happy'

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Fans of Alexander Hamilton need not fear a new design for the $10 bill. Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of Broadway musical Hamilton, says Treasury Secretary Jack Lew assured him during a Monday meeting that he is "going to be very happy" with the new bill design, to begin...
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Obama says it's a 'pretty good idea'

(Newser) -
The days of American paper money being an all-boys club could be numbered. President Obama said yesterday that he had received a letter from a young girl wondering why there were no women on US bills, "and then she gave me a long list of possible women to put...
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Time to take the nickel out of nickels?

(Newser) -
Making small change was a big money-loser for the US Mint—and the American taxpayer—last year for the eighth year in a row, with the loss from making pennies and nickels adding up to $105 million. Rising metal prices have made the cost of minting the coins rise to...
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Merkel's camp fires back at Treasury report

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As if US-German relations weren't fraught enough already, the US Treasury savaged the eurozone powerhouse in its semiannual currency report yesterday, complaining that "Germany's anemic pace of domestic demand growth and dependence on exports" have hurt the EU's struggling members, and created "a deflationary bias...
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Treasury nominee now heads to full Senate

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The Senate Finance Committee has given Jack Lew its stamp of approval, pushing forward his semi-contentious nomination as secretary of the Treasury by a 19-5 vote, reports Politico . Max Baucus, the panel's Democrat chairman, said ahead of the vote that Lew had answered all questions "in a thorough...
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He'll announce the pick tomorrow

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President Obama will tomorrow name current Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his nominee for Treasury secretary, a source tells Bloomberg News . Obama has already offered the position to Lew, the source says. The move doesn't exactly come as a surprise; Lew, a former director of the Office of...
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Or, Obama could just raise limit himself

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Think the whole debt-ceiling debate is silly? Paul Krugman does, too, and he's been pushing an admittedly "silly" way out of it. A legal loophole intended for making commemorative coins, he writes in the New York Times , could come in handy: Thanks to the rule, the US Treasury...
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Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(Newser) -
Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident....
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Downgrade could be worse: Neel Kashkari

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If the debt follies in Washington result in US credit being downgraded, it could end up being a worse financial hit than the epic failure of Lehman Brothers, writes Neel Kashkari. The former assistant secretary to the Treasury, who was appointed by George W Bush to oversee the $700 billion...
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New reports indicate the feds have a little wiggle room

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The US blew past a seventh (and final? ) deadline for coming up with a debt ceiling extension plan yesterday, but new reports indicate the country may not actually default a week from today. According to economic analysts at UBS, Aug. 8 is the earliest date the government might run...
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'Notably improved' market means $15B-$20B profit for taxpayers

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The Treasury Department will start selling the $142 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, the "toxic" assets it bought up during the financial crisis , the Wall Street Journal reports. The securities are mostly 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. And having bought the securities...
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Germany blasts US currency policy ahead of summit

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Days ahead of a G20 summit, President Obama has weighed in on an international debate over currency, as the US seeks to cull huge German and Chinese trade surpluses, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a New Delhi press conference, Obama seemed supportive of the Fed’s decision to buy...
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Watchdog says TARP spending aided France, Germany

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A big slice of the $700 billion in bailout funds the US poured into the financial system ended up helping foreign companies, according to a report from a congressional watchdog agency. Because the Treasury Department failed to gather enough information on the flow of money, it ended up taking on...
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New security features designed to curb counterfeiting

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The $100 bill is getting a new look and two high-tech security features to curb counterfeiters, the AP reports. A 3D security ribbon on the front has images of bells and 100s that move as you tilt the bill. The note, which is out next February, also has a Liberty...
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